AN 


DDEESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


DELIVERED  IN  DANVERS,  MASS., 


DANIEL  FOSTER, 


PASTOR  OP  THE  FREE  EVANGELICAL  CHURCH  OP  NORTH  DANVERS, 


COMPLIANCE  WITH  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE  VOTERS  OF  DANVERS. 


BOSTON: 

PUBLISHED  BY  BELA  MARSH,  25  CORNHILL. 

1849. 


ABNER  FORBES,  PRINTER, 


NO.  37  CORNHILL. 


^ O i 


3ZC.  ?7 
~T'  J/JIa- 


Boston,  Sept.  29,  1849, 


At  a meeting  of  the  Wesleyan  Church  in  this  city,  held  on  the 
evening  of  the  27th  September,  the  following  Resolutions  were  in- 
troduced by  the  Pastor,  Rev.  Mr.  Stockman  ; discussed  by  Wil- 
liam Blakemore,  William  Holmes,  Dr.  Fininley,  and  others,  and 
unanimously  adopted. 

Resolved,  That  the  unfeigned  and  earnest  thanks  of  this  Church 
are  due  to  the  Rev.  Mr.  Foster,  for  the  elaborate,  eloquent  and  just 
Discourse  delivered  by  him  to  this  Church  and  Society,  last  Sabbath 
evening,  on  the  subject  of  American  Slavery* 

Resolved,  That  Rev.  Mr.  Foster  be  respectfully  and  earnestly 
requested  to  publish  the  above  named  Discourse. 


I 


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Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in -2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/addressonslaveryOOfost 


ADDRESS. 


Fellow-Memhers  of  our  Common  Brotherhood  : 

I COME  before  you  on  this  occasion,  to  perform  a 
most  important  duty,  in  answer  to  your  own  request. 
In  common  courtesy,  therefore,  you  will  feel  bound 
to  give  me  an  attentive  hearing.  But  there  is  no 
occasion,  at  this  day  and  in  this  town,  for  an  earnest 
and  a loving  brother  to  ask  your  courtesy^  when 
addressing  you  upon  the  momentous  theme  on  which 
you  seek  a word  of  counsel  from  me.  You  feel  an 
absorbing  interest  in  the  subject  of  American  Slavery. 
You  know  that  in  the  question  of  its  extinction  or 
continuance,  as  a social  institution  in  our  country,  are 
involved  this  nation’s  salvation  or  ruin ; — our  future 
destiny  of  steady  and  glorious  advancement  in  the 
Social  Brotherhood  of  mankind,  moving  ever  on  in 
the  van  of  human  improvement,  and  of  human  hap- 
piness ; or  of  retrograde  and  swift  descent  from  our 
exalted  social  position,  down  the  broad  path  of 
national  injustice,  into  the  burning  retribution  which 
assuredly  awaits  the  nation  that  persists  in  wrong 
^doing,  and  into  which  so  many  disobedient,  proud, 
and  oppressive  empires  and  kingdoms  of  the  past 
have  gone  down  to  rise  no  more. 

We  are  enlisted  and  engaged  in  a momentous, 
far-reaching  controversy  — the  great  warfare  of  this 
age  — wide  as  the  world  in  its  range,  lasting  as 
eternity  in  its  destined  results.  The  great  question 


6 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY, 


now  at  issue  is,  shall  the  principles  of  the  Gospel 
of  Christ,  i.  e.,  Universal  Liberty,  Fraternity,  and 
Equality ; liberty  of  conscience,  will,  and  judgment 
in  serving  God  : liberty  of  choice  in  the  duties  of  the 
social  state ; fraternity  of  feeling  towards  all  men ; 
the  practical  and  unfailing  acknowledgment  of  the 
Brotherhood  of  mankind  in  Jesus  Christ,  and  equality 
in  all  the  social  privileges  of  this  brotherhood, — shall 
these  glorious  and  heavenly  principles  of  redeeming 
love  become  the  universal  law  of  men,  or  shall  the 
abhorrent  principle  of  despotism  secure  the  control  of 
the  world,  and  crush  beneath  its  iron  heel  the  bleed- 
ing heart  of  ruined  humanity  ? 

Ages  of  preparation  for  this  momentous  struggle 
have  passed,  and  we^  the  living  actors  of  the  present 
hour,  are  enlisted  on  the  right  or  on  the  wrong  side. 
There  is  no  neutral  ground  for  us.  We  are  enrolled 
on  the  side  of  human  progress  ; and,  under  the  banner 
of  heavenly  love,  dyed  in  the  blood  of  the  Captain 
of  our  salvation,  we  are  contending  for  the  world’s 
redemption  and  salvation;  or  in  the  ranks  of  the 
enemy  of  man,  we  are  aiding  to  bind  upon  the 
soul  the  chains  of  ignorance  and  degradation,  and  to 
fetter  the  toiling  millions  of  earth  in  the  bondage  of 
want  and  unrequited  toil. 

Society  is  in  a transforming  state.  Each  day 
brings  forth  wonderful,  startling  change.  The  past 
two  years  are  crowded  with  revolutions  and  upris- 
ings of  the  oppressed  sons  and  daughters  of  toil, 
which  would  have  marked  centuries  of  the  past  with 
an  enduring  interest.  It  is  but  yesterday,  as  it  were, 
since  the  ablest  and  most  selfish  of  European  mon- 
archs  sat  on  the  throne  of  France,  secure,  as  he 
thought,  through  eighteen  years  of  undisturbed  pos- 
session of  his  place  of  power,  and  guarded  by  one 
hundred  thousand  bayonets.  He  fancied  himself  in- 
vincible in  resources  of  wisdom  and  power,  and  in 
the  mistaken  consciousness  of  resistless  might,  the 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


7 


old  despot  threw  himself  in  the  way  of  the  on-roll- 
ing car  of  human  progress.  Louis  Philippe  lost 
throne,  home  and  birthright,  in  the  vain  attempt  to 
chain  Humanity.  He  is  now  a poor  exile  from  home 
— powerless  and  forgotten.  May  God  in  like  manner 
confound  all  the  oppressors  of  mankind ! 

As  in  France,  aspiring  freedom  and  social  love 
strive  against  grinding  tyranny  and  social  hatred,  so 
in  the  world  at  large,  the  day  of  decisive  issue  is 
dawning  between  Hate  and  Love,  Right  and  Wrong, 
Freedom  and  Bondage.  The  decision  of  this  con- 
troversy is  at  hand,  and  will  mark  the  age  that  shall 
witness  it  with  an  interest — an  importance — unparal- 
leled in  the  ages  of  the  past.  But,  my  friends,  in  no 
other  country  can  so  much  and  so  speedily  be  done, 
for  the  universal  triumph  of  Truth  and  Right,  as  in 
our  own  beloved  land.  And  no  where  else  can  so 
much  be  done  to  shroud  the  earth  in  mourning,  at  the 
downfall  of  Truth  and  Right,  as  here  and  now.  We 
exert  an  inevitable  and  most  important  influence  m 
the  decision  of  the  one  transcendent  question,  on  the 
right  and  speedy  settlement  of  which  depends,  more 
or  less  intimately,  the  well-being  of  all  men.  That 
question  is,  Shall  slavery  be  extended  and  perpe- 
tuated in  our  land,  giving  over  society  to  the  desola- 
tion of  unrestrained  selfishness  ? Or  shall  slavery  be 
walled  in  and  extirpated,  root  and  branch,  and  society 
be  brought  under  the  saving  power  of  righteousness, 
love  and  universal  good  will  ?” 

In  the  mind  of  the  true  patriot,  philanthropist  and 
Christian,  this  question  must  take  precedence  in  this 
country  of  all  other  questions.  In  the  settlement  of 
the  great  principle  now  at  issue  between  American 
slavery  and  American  justice,  is  involved  every  con- 
ceivable interest  of  country,  humanity,  and  Chris- 
tianity. Let  the  slave-power  triumph  and  make  our 
land  the  permanent  home  of  its  whips,  and  chains, 
and  branding-irons,  and  to  love  such  a country,  or 


8 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


pray  for  her  prosperity,  would  be  a deadly  sin.  True 
patriotism  would  die  in  our  midst.  Philanthropy 
could  only  weep  and  Avail  in  heart-breaking  Avoe,  over 
a crushed  and  hopeless  Humanity.  Christianity  could 
no  more  survive  the  blighting  influence  of  slavery, 
were  it  to  become  the  controlling  power  of  our  coun- 
try, than  you  could  live  in  the  sea  of  fire  which 
surges  in  the  bowels  of  Etna.  But  let  simple  justice 
and  right  be  done,  let  the  heavenly  principle  of  the 
Gospel  of  Christ, — to  mete  out  to  others  the  measure 
we  desire  for  ourselves, — prevail  with  a controlling  in- 
fluence. Under  this  blessed  influence,  let  slavery  be 
peaceably  abolished,  and  all  oppression  give  way  to 
Christian  liberty,  fraternity  and  equality,  and  then 
a bright  day  of  national  honor,  peace,  prosperity, 
and  progress,  of  philanthropic  love  and  good  will, — of 
true  practical,  holy  and  heavenly  Christianity,  Avould 
dawn  upon  our  land.  Yea,  more  ; in  the  light  of  that 
glorious  day  of  love,  should  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth  be  made  glad,  and  the  sons  of  God,  the  seraphs 
of  heaven,  the  holy  servants  of  the  Most  High,  join- 
ing with  the  sons  of  men,  should  fill  the  universe 
with  the  olden  song — 

“ Glory  to  God  on  High, 

Peace  and  good  will  to  man  below. 

I know  not  how  any  one  can  fail  to  perceive  that 
this  question  involves  issues  far  more  momentous 
than  any  other  question,  which  now  lays  hold  upon 
an  awakened  public  mind.  The  good  man  must 
show  by  his  conduct  in  this  matter,  the  holy  princi- 
ple by  which  he  is  governed  and  impelled  to  take 
his  fortune,  not  on  the  sid#  of  the  oppressor,  the 
slaveholder,  but  on  the  side  of  the  victim,  the  slave, 
and  with  his  fettered  brother. 

In  the  present  most  important  crisis,  the  patriot 
must  stake  all,  in  the  great  endeavor  to  deliver  his 
home  and  country  from  the  inevitable  and  fearful 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


9 


desolation  which  will  surely  come  upon  our  land,  if 
the  accursed  system  of  human  bondage  be  not  speed- 
ily and  utterly  overthrown.  If  your  watch  and  your 
toil  be  not  against  the  slaveholder  and  for  the  slave, 
then  verily  you  are  the  enemy  and  the  betrayer,  not 
the  friend  and  savior  of  your  country. 

The  Christian’s  first  and  most  sacred  duty  in  the 
vineyard  of  his  Lord,  now^  is  to  succor  and  save  his 
bleeding  brother  in  bonds,  to  put  the  ban  of  deep  ab- 
horrence and  reprobation  upon  the  sin  of  slavehold- 
ing and  slaveholding  support,  and  to  provide  a secure 
asylum,  where  safety  and  hope  shall  cheer  the  crush- 
ed and  the  chained. 

If  you  feel  no  sympathy  of  soul,  no  yearnings  of 
heart,  no  community  of  wrongs  and  woes,  for  and 
with  the  slave  ; if  your  indignation  slumbers  at  the 
recital  of  the  cruel  sin  of  the  slaveholder ; if  you 
have  any  fellowship  in  the  privileges  of  the  church 
or  of  society,  with  those  who  make  merchandise  of 
God’s  children  ; if  your  religion  does  not  impel  you 
to  labor  zealously  and  constantly,  in  the  world  and 
in  the  sanctuary,  on  the  Sabbath  and  on  other  days, 
for  the  immediate  overthrow  of  American  Slavery, 
and  for  the  immediate  elevation  to  all  the  rights  and 
enjoyments  of  the  great  Christian  brotherhood,  of  the 
three  millions  of  outraged  and  desolated  slaves  in  our 
land,  then  I pray  you  to  fell  me  what  your  religion 
is  worth  to  your  own  soul,  to  God,  or  to  dying  man  ? 

Beware  ! You  may  hear  the  awful  words  of  con- 
demnation, inasmuch  as  ye  gave  no  ministration  of 
love  and  mercy  to  these  outraged  and  perishing  breth- 
ren, ye  despised  and  neglected  me.  Depart,  ye 
workers  of  iniquity  !” 

Permit  me  now  to  call  your  attention  to  the  two 
resolutions  which  were  passed  by  the  town  of  Dan- 
vers  at  our  last  annual  meeting  : 

“ Resolved,  By  the  voters  of  Danvers,  in  Town-Meeting  assem^ 
bled,  ‘ That  we  deeply  deplore  the  sin  of  our  nation,  in  holding 
1# 


10 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


slaves  ; and  we  feel  it  our  duty  to  use  all  means  in  accordance  with 
Christianity,  to  hasten  the  overthrow  of  the  system  of  American 
Slavery.’ 

“ Resolved,  That  we  believe  in  the  righteousness,  safety,  and 
expediency  of  immediate  emancipation  ; and  we  believe  it  our  duly 

to  do  all  we  can  to  secure  this  result.” 

# 

I pray  God,  that  the  just  sentiments  of  these  re- 
solves may  firmly  seize  upon  the  public  conscience, 
and  control  the  nation’s  conduct.  Then^  but  never 
otherwise,  would  this  be  that  happy  people,  whose 
God  is  the  Lord  ; and  our  country  would  be  exalted 
by  a saving  righteousness,  a redeeming  love,  a divine 
justice. 

At  the  formation  of  our  present  federative  govern- 
ment, the  number  of  slaves  was  about  one  fifth  the 
number  now  in  bondage.  The  slave  territory  was 
then  less  than  one  fourth  the  area  now  blighted  by  the 
presence,  on  the  soil,  of  human  servitude.  And  yet, 
slavery  has  been  abolished  in  several  of  the  States  of 
the  Union,  now  free,  since  the  adoption  of  our  Con- 
stitution. Here  let  me  state  an  important  fact.  It 
was  the  general  expectation  and  desire,  sixty  years 
ago,  that  slavery  would  be  extended  in  this  country 
no  further.  The  Fathers  of  our  Union,  though  they 
saw  not  the  atrocious  evil  of  slavery  as  we  now  see 
it,  did  nevertheless,  see  and  acknowledge  its  evil  and 
ruinous  nature.  In  their  day,  it  was  universally  ac- 
knowledged, that  slavery  was  an  alarming  evil,  and 
it  was  the  general  expectation  and  desire,  that  mea- 
sures would  be  adopted  by  the  States,  for  its  removal. . 
Washington  declared  that  his  suffrage  and  influence 
should  never  be  wanting  for  the  abolition  of  slavery, 
by  legislative  enactment,  in  Virginia.  Jefierson  ex- 
pressed trembling  fears  of  national  ruin,  in  view  of 
God’s  justice,  through  our  atrocious  system  of  human 
bondage,  one  hour’s  endurance  of  which  he  declared  to 
be  worse  than  the  oppression  of  England,  by  which 
our  fathers  were  driven  to  revolt.  Lafayette,  who 
nobly  aided  our  fathers  in  their  darkest  hour,  on  his 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


11 


last  visit  to  this  country,  at  a public  dinner  in  Salem, 
emphatically  said,  that  he  never  would  have  spent  a dol- 
lar nor  struck  a blow  for  our  independence,  had  he  not 
been  assured  that  we  honestly  meant  to  secure  the 
freedom  of  the  slave,  by  gaining  our  own.  No  fact 
can  be  clearer  than  the  intention  of  our  fathers  to 
localize  and  discourage  slavery,  or  than  their  general 
hope  to  see  it  soon  abolished  by  State  action.  And 
yet,  we  see  slavery  extended,  in  sixty  years,  to  a new 
and  then  unoccupied  territory,  of  greater  magnitude, 
and  of  wider  natural  resources,  than  the  original  thir- 
teen States.  This  fact  opens  to  our  view  an  alarm- 
ing national  departure  from  justice  and  right,  of  fear- 
ful import  against  us. 

It  is  of  unspeakable  importance  that  we,  one  and 
all^  should  now  understand  the  evil  influence  by 
which  this  work  of  ruin  has  been  accomplished. 
Equally  important,  too,  that  the  freemen  of  this  na- 
tion should  rise  up  as  one  man,  at  once  and  for  ever 
to  destroy  this  unholy  influence.  Do  you  ask,  what 
is  that  power  which  has  seared  the  nation’s  conscience, 
blinded  her  understanding,  debased  her  judgment,  and 
consecrated  her  vast  resources  to  the  infernal  scheme 
of  extending  and  perpetuating  the  bondage  of  man  ?” 
Nothing  but  the  slave-power  could  undertake  such  a 
mission. 

Unprincipled  slave-breeders  and  traders,  uniting  with 
unprincipled  and  ambitious  politicians  from  all  sec- 
tions of  the  Union,  have  accomplished  this  horrible 
work.  They  are  now  guiding  the  ship  of  state  on 
to  the  sharp  rocks  and  into  the  boiling  surge.  When 
the  constitution  was  formed,  slavery  was  permitted 
to  exist  for  a little  period,  that  it  might  prepare  itself 
to  die.  Whoever  studies  the  sentiment  of  that  day, 
will  see  that  men  no  more  intended  the  perpetuation 
of  slavery  in  this  republic,  than  again  to  place  the 
yoke  which  they  had  broken  upon  their  own  necks. 
Mark  the  contrast.  One  of  the  first  acts  of  legisla- 


12 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


tion  then^  was  to  prohibit  slavery  in  all  that  territory 
which  had  not  been  formed  into  States.  In  a later 
time^  we  admit  States  that  prohibit  the  abolition  of 
slavery  for  ever.  Then^  all  the  territories  belonging 
to  the  country  were  declared  to  be  free.  Now^  we 
receive  new  regions,  far  wider  than  mighty  empires, 
in  which  we  sanction  human  bondage.  Then,  slav- 
ery, as  upon  its  bended  knees,  pleaded  for  a brief  de- 
lay in  the  execution  of  the  sentence  of  death  which 
seemed  to  be  issued  against  it,  in  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  republic,  and  the  living  spirit  of  the 
nation.  In  a later  generation^  slavery  has  assumed 
the  dominion,  and  Liberty  herself  has  been  dumb  in 
its  presence.’’ 

We  will  now  briefly  refer  to  some  of  the  enormities 
of  the  slave-power.  By  the  slave-power,  you  will 
understand  the  influence  of  that  combination  of  men 
who  act  together  for  the  extension,  permanence  and 
supremacy  of  slavery  in  our  country.  First,  the 
Texas  swindle. 

The  neighboring  state  of  Mexico,  having  achieved 
her  own  independence,  published,  September  15, 
1829,  a decree  for  the  entire  abolition  of  slavery,  in 
which  we  find  these  remarkable  words  : Being  de- 
.sirous  to  signalize  the  anniversary  of  independence,  by 
an  act  of  national  justice  and  beneficence,  which  may 
redound  to  the  advantage  and  support  of  so  inestima- 
ble a good,  which  may  tend  to  the  aggrandizement  of 
the  republic,  and  which  may  reinstate  an  unfortunate 
portion  of  its  inhabitants  in  the  sacred  rights  which 
nature  gave  them,  whom  the  nation  should  protect 
by  wise  and  wholesome  laws, — I [the  President] 
have  resolved  to  decree,  that  slavery  is  and  shall  re- 
main abolished  in  this  republic.” 

When  this  righteous  decree  became  the  universal 
law  of  the  Mexican  States,  the  inexorable  sentence 
against  an  inoffensive  neighbor,  just  entering  upon  the 
experiment  of  self-government,  went  forth  from  the 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


13 


slave-power  of  our  country:  Thy  heritage  shall  he 
torn  from  thee^  and  thy  portion  divided  amonst  thy 
spoilers.^^  In  accordance  with  this  unholy  purpose, 
slaveholders  and  their  allies  poured  into  a province  of 
Mexico,  and  establishing  slavery  therein,  in  open  vio- 
lation of  the  fundamental  law  of  the  land,  they  rais- 
ed the  standard  of  revolt.  While  that  robber  war 
was  fiercely  waged,  regiments  were  openly  raised  and 
equipped  in  our  country,  to  aid  the  desperadoes  of 
Texas,  in  wresting  that  vast  province  from  a sister 
republic,  that  it  might  be  dedicated  as  a prison-house 
for  the  slave.  So  far  was  our  government  from  inter- 
fering to  arrest  this  high-handed  crime,  that  the  Pres- 
ident, himself  a large  slaveholder,  sent  a division  of 
the  United  States’  Army,  under  Gen.  Gaines,  to  give 
covert  aid  to  the  infernal  enterprise.  It  was  just  as 
impossible  for  the  infant  republic  of  Mexico  to  with- 
stand the  might  of  the  wicked  and  powerful  combi- 
nation against  her,  as  for  the  noble  Hungarians  to 
roll  back  the  desperate  hordes  of  Russia  and  Austria. 
Both  were  doomed  to  fall,  because  unprotected  inno- 
cence was  pitted  against  the  organized  powers  of  des- 
perate and  determined  tyranny.  The  dark  design  of 
the  slave-power  was  accomplished,  and  human  bond- 
age was  established  on  one  hundred  and  ninety-two 
rnillions  of  acres  of  free  soil ! 

Then  came  the  effort  to  introduce  Texas  into  the 
Union.  The  slave-power  planned  and  toiled  to  effect 
this  purpose,  while  the  nation  slumbered  on  in  besot- 
ted carelessness.  By  the  vigilance  of  a few  far-see- 
ing, true-hearted  and  unyielding  men,  the  slave- 
power  was  compelled  to  defer  the  accomplishment  of 
this  darling  plan.  But  the  genius  of  oppression  never 
for  one  moment  relaxed  its  toil,  till  success  crowned 
its  efforts,  and  Texas  entered  the  sisterhood  of  States, 
with  a constitution  dooming  her  soil  to  the  blighting 
curse  of  perpetual  bondage  ! 

But  this  triumph  gave  no  rest  to  the  plotting,  bane- 


14 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


fill  slave-power.  This  act  of  dark  injustice  and  na- 
tional debasement  was  only  one  of  a long  series  of 
contemplated  crimes,  all  in  due  time  to  follow,  for 
the  further  extension  of  slavery. 

The  next  act  of  outrageous  crime  was  consummated 
under  the  Presidency  of  James  K.  Polk,  through  the 
unhesitating  assistance  of  the  two  great  political 
parties  of  this  country.  The  national  honor  is  trailed 
in  the  dust,  the  nation’s  integrity  is  destroyed,  and  the 
nation’s  account  of  wrong-doing,  calling  aloud  for 
sweeping  retribution,  is  fearfully  augmented,  by  a 
national  prosecution  of  a pro-slavery  war  of  conquest 
and  dismemberment,  against  a defenceless  neighbor, 
in  order  to  add  a vast  area  of  virgin  soil  to  the  land  of 
Avhips,  and  chains,  and  branding-irons  ! A slave- 
holding President,  the  infamous  tool  of  the  slave- 
power,  and  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  Whigs 
and  Democrats,  with  the  exception  of  fourteen  noble 
men,  bowed  the  knee  to  the  bloody  Moloch  of  Slav- 
ery, and  joined  wicked  hands  in  the  prosecution  of 
this  nefarious  war  against  Humanity.  They  raised 
and  sent  against  Mexico  seventy-five  thousand  men, 
under  the  command  of  the  two  great  robbers  of  this 
land,  to  bombard  the  cities,  and  to  desolate  the  fields 
of  an  unfortunate  neighbor.  All  this  was  undertaken 
‘ and  carried  out  by  our  Government,  at  the  behest'^of 
tthe  slave-power,  to  enlarge  the  area  of  human  bond- 
age ! 

In  the  prosecution  of  this  heaven-daring  crime, 
two  hundred  millions  of  dollars  were  wasted,  and 
stagnation  in  business,  with  deep,  lasting  commer- 
cial distress,  was  recklessly  brought  down  upon  the 
country  by  this  terrible  waste.  The  present  genera- 
tion and  generations  yet  unborn,  were  burdened  with 
an  enormous  debt.  One  hundred  thousand  members 
of  the  human  brotherhood  were  immolated  on  the 
bloody  altar  of  war.  The  fiendish  passions  of  the 
damned  were  let  loose  to  spread  moral  havoc  and 
desolation  through  our  land. 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


15 


We  are  beginning  to  reap  the  fruits  of  such  wretch- 
ed national  husbandry.  In  our  own  beloved  Massa- 
chusetts, intemperance,  gambling  and  licentiousness 
prevail  to  an  alarming  and  unprecedented  degree. 
Witness  the  open  and  high-handed  violation  of  law 
by  hundreds  of  desperate  men,  banded  together,  and 
plying  in  open  day  their  work  of  death  at  all  public 
gatherings,  at  Neponset,  at  Concord,  at  Danvers.  See 
the  gamblers  resisting  and  defeating  all  the  etforts  of 
the  officers  of  the  law  to  arrest  their  wickedness. 
Crime  never  before  walked  abroad  in  our  cities  and 
large  towns,  in  such  proud  defiance  of  law  as  it  now 
does.  The  nation  is  pressing  on  to  fearful  retribu- 
tion, under  the  control  of  the  slave-power.  Surely 
then  we  speak  the  words  of  soberness  and  truth,  when 
we  appeal  to  all  true  hearts,  in  the  words  of  our  reso- 
lutions, earnestly  saying  unto  them  : “ Brothers  and 
sisters,  we  must  deeply  deplore  the  sin  of  our  nation 
in  holding  slaves.  We  7iiust  feel  it  to  be  our  duty  to 
use  all  means  in  accordance  with  Christianity,  to  has- 
ten the  overthrow  of  the  system  of  American  slavery. 
We  believe  it  to  be  our  imperative  duty  to  do  all  we 
can  to  secure  immediate  emancipation^  as  the  only 
righteous,  safe  and  expedient  remedy  for  this  evil.’’ 

Let  us  look  once  more  into  the  dark  record  of 
crime  wrought  out  by  the  slave-power. 

The  Cherokee  and  Choctaw  Indians  trusted  in  the  ^ 
nation’s  honor  and  faith,  which  were  plighted  to  them 
in  solemn,  specific  and  binding  treaties,  to  protect 
them  in  the  undisturbed  possession  and  enjoyment 
of  the  small  remnant  of  the  land  of  their  fathers,  on 
which  they  then  dwelt.  They  were  learning  the 
arts  and  surrounding  themselves  with  the  comforts  of 
civilized  life.  They  lived  peaceably  at  home,  confid- 
ing in  the  plighted  word  of  a great  people,  generously 
given  to  them  in  their  weakness.  But  their  rich  and 
valuable  lands,  their  beautiful  homes,  were  situated 
in  the  midst  of  the  slave  States.  The  slave-power 


16 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


coveted  its  weak  neighbor’s  vineyard,  and  finding 
that  the  precious  homes  of  this  defenceless  people 
could  not  be  fairly  purchased,  the  meanest  fraud  was 
resorted  to  in  order  to  put  forth  a claim  to  their  pos- 
sessions, and  then  the  national  force  was  employed 
to  drive  the  heart-broken  Indian  away  from  his  dear 
old  home,  into  the  wilderness  wilds  beyond  the 
Mississippi.  The  slave-power  polluted  our  national 
character  by  this  falsehood  and  fraud  ; and  then,  with 
a triumphant  jubilee,  consecrated  the  fair  inheritance, 
which  this  nation  had  wrested  from  the  trusting  and 
the  defenceless,  to  the  cruelties  and  woes  of  human 
bondage. 

A feeble  band  of  Seminoles,  the  remnant  of  a great 
tribe,  lived  upon  the  land  of  their  fathers,  among 
the  everglades  of  Florida.  The  slave-power  coveted 
their  beautiful  land,  and  demanded  our  assistance  to 
drive  into  returnless  exilement,  the  doomed  victims 
of  a merciless  avarice.  We  met  this  atrocious  de- 
mand by  expending  forty  millions  of  dollars,  by 
sacrificing  ten  thousand  lives,  pouring  in  upon  the 
fastnesses  and  homes  of  the  poor  Indians,  a horde  of 
house-burners,  women-violators,  children-stealers  and 
men-slayers,  led  on  by  the  bloodhound  warrior,  who 
now  executes  our  laws  ! Before  this  sweeping  tide 
of  cruelty,  rapine  and  death,  the  courage  of  the  brave 
Indian  gave  way  to  despair.  A train  of  weeping 
mourners  is  led  away  to  dig  their  graves  in  the  far- 
distant  West.  The  Indiaids  home  hi  the  land  of 
flowers  is  now  the  land  of  chahis. 

All  these  crimes  of  robbery  and  murder,  the  slave- 
power  instigated  and  the  nation  executed.  Crime  of 
such  unmitigated  meanness,  of  such  damning  atrocity, 
as  our  nation  is  guilty  of,  in  robbing  the  Irfdians  and 
Mexicans  of  their  inheritance,  in  order  to  plant 
slavery  thereon,  can  hardly  be  found  in  the  annals  of 
any  other  people.  And  so  sure  as  a just  God  reigns, 
dispensing  righteous  judgments  to  the  children  of 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


17 


men,  such  high-handed  and  heaven-daring  national 
crime  is  working  the  downfall  of  this  people.  Let 
repentance  be  delayed,  let  restitution  be  refused,  and 
let  the  same  course  of  cruel  injustice  be  persisted  in, 
and  national  retribution,  wide,  sweeping  and  thor- 
ough, must  be  our  doom.  And  when  that  hour 
comes,  and  this  nation  is  overthrown,  all  th^  people 
of  the  earth  shall  shout  a glad  amen,  at  the  fall  of 
this  Babylon  of  oppression,  rapine  and  deception. 
How  clear,  therefore,  to  every  one  whose  eye  is  sin- 
gle, our  imperative  duty  to  deplore  with  deepest  feel- 
ing, the  sin  of  our  nation,  and  our  sin  in  holding 
slaves,  and  to  use  all  fair  and  honorable  means  for 
the  immediate  overthrow  of  the  slave-power,  which 
is  working  out  for  us  such  speedy  and  fearful  ruin. 

See  now  how  the  slave-power  involves  the  nation 
in  the  sin  of  hypocrisy.  We  profess  before  the  world 
to  respect  the  right  of  free  thought  and  of  free  dis- 
cussion. How  does  the  reality  compare  with  such 
professions  ? Why,  it  is  notorious,  that  wherever  the 
slave-power  controls  the  public  mind,  there  is  no 
freedom  of  thought  or  of  discussion.  The  tyranny 
of  the  Spanish  Inquisition,  in  its  darkest  days  of 
greatest  cruelty,  can  hardly  be  said  to  exceed  the 
tyranny  of  the  slave-power,  in  shackling  the  free 
thoughts  of  men,  and  in  chaining  down  all  free  discus- 
sion. In  proof  of  this  statement,  I will  present  to 
you  three  extracts  from  three  of  the  leading  journals 
of  the  South,  upon  the  subject  of  free  discussion. 
The  New  Orleans  True  American  says : We  can 
assure  the  Bostonians,  one  and  all,  who  have  embark- 
ed in  the  nefarious  scheme  of  abolishing  slavery  at 
the  South,  that  lashes  will  hereafter  be  spared  the 
backs  of  their  emissaries.  Let  them  send  out  their  men 
to  Louisiana, — they  will  never  return  to  tell  their  suf- 
ferings^ but  they  shall  expiate  the  crime  of  interfering 
in  our  domestic  institutions,  by  being  burned  at  the 

STAKE.’’ 


18 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


Says  the  Augusta  (Georgia)  Chronicle  : The  cry 
of  the  whole  South  should  be  death — instant  death 
to  the  Abolitionist y wherever  he  is  caught, 

Says  the  Columbia  (South  Carolina)  Telescope  : 

Let  us  declare,  through  the  public  journals  of  our 
country,  that  the  question  of  slavery  is  not  and  shall 
not  be  open  for  discussion  ; that  the  system  is  too  deep- 
rooted  among  us,  and  must  remain  for  ever  ; that  the 
very  moment  any  private  individual  attempts  to  lec- 
ture us  upon  its  evils  and  immoralities,  and  the 
necessity  of  putting  means  in  operation  to  secure  our- 
selves from  them,  in  the  same  moment  his  tongue 

SHALL  BE  CUT  OUT  AND  CAST  UPON  THE  DUNGHILL.” 

So  speaks  the  slave-power.  Its  actions  come  up  to 
the  full  atrocity  of  its  denunciations.  Was  the  Span- 
ish Inquisition  ever  worse  than  this  ? 

Hangman  Foote,  of  Mississippi,  a senator  in  Con- 
gress, deliberately  and  openly  declared,  in  the  Senate 
Chamber,  that  he  and  his  neighbors  would  hang  up 
by  the  neck,  on  some  tall  tree,  a brother  senator 
from  New  Hampshire,  if  he  would  only  afford  them 
the  pleasant  opportunity,  by  coming  among  them, 
and  giving  utterance  to  his  convictions  of  the  evil  and 
crime  of  slavery.  There  is  no  doubt  it  would  be 
done  with  bonfires  and  public  rejoicings,  by  the 
slaveholders  of  that  State.  Joh7i  P.  Hale  would  be 
7nurdered  in  open  day,  if  he  should  visit  Mississippi, 
and  talk  there  as  he  does  at  home. 

You  can  see  how  the  slave-power  degrades  the 
minds  of  our  statesmen,  who  succumb  to  its  influence 
in  this  disgraceful  fact,  viz.  : when  that  threat  of  as- 
sassination was  made  in  our  Senate  Chamber,  no 
senator  from  the  Free  States  rebuked  the  fell  assassin  ! 
Where  then  was  the  burning  eloquence  of  Ohio’s 
favorite  son  ? Where  the  unequalled  power  of  with- 
ering rebuke  belonging  to  the  gifted  son  of  Massa- 
chusetts’ adoption  ? All  were  dumb,  cowed  by  the 
braying  of  the  ass,  on  which  rode  the  embodied 
spirit  of  the  slave-power  ! 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


19 


South  Carolina  takes  the  free  citizens  of  Massachu- 
setts from  our  vessels,  when  they  arrive  in  her  ports, 
and  confines  them  in  her  pestilential  jails,  for  no  crime 
but  the  color  of  their  skin ! Our  Commonwealth 
sends  one  of  her  most  venerable  men  to  try  the  con- 
stitutionality of  the  law  which  authorizes  these  out- 
rages. The  slave-power  fears  the  light  of  free  discus- 
sion, and  so  Samuel  Hoar  is  ignominiously  driven 
from  the  South,  and  the  will  of  a sister  State,  as  well 
as  the  rights  of  Humanity,  are  trampled  in  the  dust 
by  the  inexorable  slave-power ! Shame  on  Massa- 
chusetts, that  she  cannot  find  a man  who  will  stand 
firm  in  that  post  of  duty,  unawed  by  the  threats  of 
slavery,  and  unmoved  by  the  danger  of  a martyr’s 
death  ! A true  man  would  have  died  then  rather 
than  flee, 

A Wesleyan  minister  is  now  awaiting  his  trial  in 
Virginia,  charged  with  circulating  ‘^Rev.  E.  Smith’s 
Bible  Argument  on  Slavery,”  and  with  loaning 

Frederick  Douglass’s  Narrative.”  These  two  charg- 
es subject  him  to  an  imprisonment  in  the  State  Peni- 
tentiary, of  not  less  than  two  years,  nor  more  than 
ten  years.  All  can  judge,  from  the  past  conduct  of 
the  slave-power  in  such  cases,  what  the  measure  of 
cruelty  meted  out  to  him  will  probably  be. 

Barrett,  a citizen  of  Ohio,  passing  through  South 
Carolina,  is  arrested  on  the  bare  suspicion  of  being 
an  abolitionist,  and  of  being  engaged  in  circulating  a 
pamphlet  through  that  State,  in  which  is  exposed  the 
unjust  representative  system,  fixed  upon  the  State  by 
the  slave-power.  The  United  States  mail  is  rifled 
to  get  evidence  against  him,  and  our  Postmaster- 
General,  though  cradled  and  nurtured  into  manhood 
among  the  free  hills  of  Vermont,  bows  down  in 
craven  fear,  to  this  outrage  upon  the  constitution,  by 
the  slave-power  ! Was  Arnold  a baser  traitor  1 

Mr.  Jane  way,  of  Loudon  County,  Virginia,  has 
been  presented  by  the  grand  jury  for  writing  articles 


20 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


against  slavery,  for  the  National  Era,  a paper  printea 
in  the  District  of  Columbia,  out  of  the  jurisdiction 
of  Virginia.  What  the  punishment  will  be,  which 
such  an  oflence  may  be  thought  to  deserve  in  the 
native  State  of  Washington  and  Jefferson,  we  cannot 
tell.  But  judging  by  the  past,  it  cannot  be  a light 
one.  Such  facts  might  be  multiplied  to  any  extent. 
How  false  and  hypocritical,  then,  our  nation’s  boasted 
freedom  of  thought  and  of  discussion ! Freedom 
and  Truth  inevitably  perish  wherever  slavery  exists. 

But  it  is  time,  in  our  enumeration  of  the  atrocious 
crimes  of  the  slave-power,  to  consider  the  ruined 
slave. 

Since  the  formation  of  our  government,  nine  mil- 
lions of  human  beings,  according  to  a careful  estimate, 
have  lived,  toiled  and  died,  slaves  in  our  land.  Nine 
millions  now  in  the  world  of  eternal  and  just  award,^ 
swift  and  fearful  witnesses  against  this  people  ! Three 
millions  are  now  slaves,  fettered  and  degraded,  in 
this  land  of  boasted  liberty  ! 

It  is  not  my  purpose  in  this  address  to  say  a word 
of  the  whips,  and  chains,  and  branding-irons  of  slav- 
ery. These  are  but  a drop  in  the  ocean  of  unavoid- 
able cruelties  and  woes  of  the  accursed  system.  It 
is  not  the  body  so  much  as  it  is  the  heart,  the  soul 
of  the  slave,  which  is  marked  with  the  indelible  scars 
of  remorseless  tyranny. 

These  numberless  fellow-beings,  one  and  all,  have 
the  same  intuitive  and  irrepressible  longings  after 
happiness  that  you  and  I have.  The  same  thrilling 
love  for  home,  and  for  the  dear  members  of  the  fa- 
mily circle,  as  brightly  burns  in  their  souls  as  in  ours. 
The  same  yearnings  of  heart  for  improvement  in  so- 
cial and  intellectual  condition,  lay  hold  upon  them  as 
upon  us.  But  all  these  sacred  feelings  of  the  living 
and  immortal  mind  are  disregarded  and  desecrated  by 
the  ruthless  slave-power  in  the  case  of  untold  millions 
of  members  of  the  human  brotherhood,  doomed  by 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


21 


that  power  to  wear  away  life  in  mental  darkness  and 
in  chains  ! 

I entreat  of  you  a patient  hearing,  while  I now  en- 
deavor to  aid  you  in  remembering  the  slave,  according 
to  God^s  command^  as  bound  with  him.  Brother ! put 
yourself  in  the  place  of  the  slave-husband.  Sister ! 
put  yourself  in  the  place  of  the  slave-wife.  You 
have  gained  the  affections  of  one  to  whom  you  have 
given  the  priceless  treasure  of  your  love.  The  hap- 
piness of  this  relationship,  and  the  sweet  communion 
of  fond  hearts,  are  daily  embittered  and  darkened  by 
the  fear  of  a cruel  separation.  It  is  not  death  that 
you  fear  as  the  agent  appointed  to  separate  you,  and 
the  cause  of  despairing  woe.  O no  ! His  your  mas- 
ter—your  brother.  He  owns  you  and  your  wife. 
He  can  sunder  the  ties  which  join  you  in  holy 
affection,  and  which  make  of  two  one  heart.  He 
can  send  away  your  husband,  never  to  return  to  your 
embrace,  leaving  you  in  a hopeless,  joyless  widow- 
hood, and  your  children  in  an  unprotected  state, 
worse  than  orphanage.  He  can  sell  your  Avife,  tear 
her  from  your  embrace,  and  send  her  away  to  return- 
less exilement,  leaving  you  to  mourn  without  hope. 
Your  master  can  sell  you  or  your  wife  just  as  he  can 
sell  his  ox  or  his  horse,  and  no  earthly  power  can  save 
or  aid  you. 

Listen  to  an  extract  from  the  thrilling  narrative  of 
Henry  Box  Brown. 

Henry  was  a slave  in  Virginia.  He  had  a wife 
and  three  children,  for  whom  he  was  paying  one 
hundred  and  twenty  dollars  a year.  One  morning 
he  went  to  work  as  usual,  but  on  returning  at  noon, 
found  that  his  wife  and  children  had  been  seized  and 
sold  upon  the  auction-block,  to  the  slave-traders, 
and  were  to  be  transported  out  of  the  State  the  next 
day,  in  a slave-gang,  which  had  just  been  filled  by 
the  purchase  of  his  wife  and  children.  Henry  says: 

The  n \.i  day  I stationed  myself  by  the  side  of  the 


22 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


road,  over  which  the  slaves,  three  hundred  and  fifty- 
three,  were  to  pass.  There  was  a large  company  of 
us  waiting  to  take  a last  farewell  of  the  dear  ones 
of  our  homes.  A moan  of  sorrow  could  be  heard  on 
all  sides  as  we  waited  for  the  sad  procession.  Soon 
five  waggons  came  along,  loaded  with  the  children 
too  small  to  walk.  My  little  girl  saw  me,  and  point- 
ing to  me  with  her  hand'  out  of  the  waggon,  cried 
out,  ^ There^s  my  father  ; I knew  he  would  come 
to  say  good-bye.’  I was  choked  with  sorrow,  and 
could  not  reply  a word.  When  the  slave-gang  came 
up,  I got  hold  of  the  hand  of  my  wife,  and  walked 
weeping  by  her  side  for  several  miles.  We  could 
not  talk  ; our  sorrow  was  too  great ; and  we  parted 
without  speaking  the  word,  farewell. 

Henry  remarked,  with  the  deepest  pathos,  that 
after  his  wife  and  children  were  stolen,  his  heart  was 
broken.  He  had  learned  to  sing,  to  lighten  the 
tedium  of  his  labor,  and  for  the  gratification  of  his 
fellow-captives,  but  now  he  could  not  sing.  His 
thoughts  were  far  away  in  the  rice-swamps  of  Caro- 
lina. His  wife  was  not  and  his  children  were  not, 
and  he  refused  to  be  comforted.  When  the  master, 
noticing  his  despondency,  told  him  he  could  get 
another  wife  (Southern  morality).  Brown  shook  his 
head, — ^the  wife  of  his  affections  and  the  children  of 
his  love  or  none  at  all.” 

Brothers,  will  you  remember  the  sorrows  of  Henry 
Box  Brown  ? Sisters,  will  you  think  upon  the  situ- 
ation of  that  heart-broken  wife  ? 

Fathers  and  mothers  ! put  yourselves  in  the  place 
of  the  slave-father  and  the  slav e-mother ^ and  see  if 
you  could  endure  their  cruel  woes.  You  love  your 
children  with  a parent’s  fond,  enduring  affection. 
Your  intense  desire  is  to  promote  your  children’s 
well-being,  to  secure  their  happiness.  But  alas ! 
you  have  no  control  over  the  destiny  of  your  off- 
spring. You  are  not  permitted  to  send  your  dear 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


23 


little  boys  and  girls  to  school.  No  one  is  allowed 
to  impart  knowledge  to  their  eager  minds.  Ignorant 
and  degraded  you  usher  them  into  the  world,  ig- 
norant and  degraded  they  must  live  and  die.  Your 
children  are  slaves.  They  belong  to  your  master. 
He  may  do  with  them  as  seCmeth  proper  to  him,  and 
you  have  no  remedy,  however  unjustly  or  cruelly  your 
beloved  child  is  treated.  If  you  have  a beautiful, 
graceful  daughter,  that  beauty  and  grace  will  fetch 
their  price.  Your  daughter  may  be  exposed  for  un- 
restrained examination  and  sale  upon  the  auction- 
block,  in  the  presence  of  insensate  fiends,  burning 
with  hellish  lust.  Avarice,  overpowered  by  the  fires 
of  unholy  passion,  which  her  beauty  and  grace  will 
awaken  in  lecherous  villians,  will  pay  down  the 
price,  and  your  lovely  child  is  carried  off  to  the  harem 
of  death-dealing  lust. 

Sorrowfully  I speak  of  these  things.  With  indes- 
cribable sympathy,  I think  of  the  thousands  and 
tens  of  thousands  of  our  defenceless  and  wretched 
sisters  in  the  polluted  land  of  slavery.  Who  else  on 
earth  so  completely  in  the  hands  of  unprincipled 
tyrants  as  they  ? Whose  condition  demands  such 
fervent  commiseration  as  theirs  ? 

“ SALE  OF  A WHITE  GIRL. 

A correspondent  of  the  Saturday  Visiter,  formerly  a resident  of  a 
slave  State,  but  now  living  in  Pittsburg,  furnishes  the  following 
case  of  the  sale  of  a white  girl,  which  came  under  his  notice: 

One  day  I noticed  the  slave-market  rather  more  crowded  than  usual 
(it  was  directly  opposite  the  store  in  which  I was  engaged.)  Curi- 
osity led  me  to  swell  the  number  of  the  audience  ; and,  O God  ! I 
shall  never  forget  the  scene  which  presented  itself  to  my  view.  A 
beautiful  girl,  about  18  years  of  age,  as  white  as  the  fairest  belle 
in  Pittsburg,  stood  drowned  in  tears  and  wofully  dejected,  beside 
the  devil  incarnate  whose  business  it  was  to  dispose  of  her  body  and 
soul,  to  the  highest  bidder  ; he  spoke  long,  loud  and  lasciviously  of 
her  charms,  but  could  not  entirely  quench  the  latent  spark  of  human 
feeling — some  few  cried  ‘ shame  !’  Pie  could  not  excite  the  bestial 
passions  of  the  lustful,  to  entrench  upon  their  pockets  to  the  extent 
he  wished.  Not  even  were  the  brutal  traders  in  female  purity  from 


24 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


New  Orleans  satisfied  with  his  exordiums  of  her  excellence.  They 
should  know  more.  An  aged  gentleman  bid  $600,  and  there  it 
stopped.  The  old  man’s  eye  glistened,  and  he  drew  up  his  attenu- 
ated form  to  its  full  height ; he  thought  the  prize  was  his,  and  that 
before  to-morrow’s  sun  had  sunk  in  the  west,  the  fair  flower  that 
bloomed  before  him  would  be  blighted  and  blasted  forever.  But 
not  so. 

The  skilful  auctioneer jDf  God’s  image  saw  that  he  had  raised  as 
much  as  he  could  with  the  poor  girl’s  present  appearance,  as  she 
had  clothed  herself  as  neatly  as  they  would  allow.  He  crying, 
‘ Gentlemen,  you  know  not  what  a prize  you  let  slip,’  pulled  off  the 
turban  which  she  wore,  and  a magnificent  head  of  long  hair  fell  down 
about  her  shoulders,  dark  as  night,  and  wavy  as  the  sea  when  fan- 
ned by  a gentle  breeze.  The  Southern  rascal  bid  $650,  the  old 
one  $700,  and  again  all  was  fair  for  the  hopes  of  the  Septuagen- 
arian, when  with  dastard  hand,  the  ruffian  salesman  lore  asunder 
the  dress  which  covered  her  bosom,  and  exposed  to  the  libertine 
gaze  around  him,  a bust  in  beauty  and  purity  never  surpassed 
by  painter  or  sculptor.  I turned  away,  and  went  home  sick  at  heart. 
Forgive  me,  O God,  if  I almost  doubted  thy  justice.  1 was  inform- 
ed a few  hours  after,  that  the  poor  girl  swooned,  and  while  in  a 
state  of  insensibility,  was  examined,  bid  for,  and  at  last  bought  by 
one  of  the  Southern  traders.  May  God  have  pity  on  her  ! 

On  inquiry,  I found  that  she  had  been  raised  and  educated  by 
an  old  lady,  whose  property  she  was,  and  who  died  suddenly  intes- 
tate. For  the  purpose  of  division  among  her  heirs,  her  real  estate 
and  slaves  were  all  sold  by  auction,  under  an  order  from  some 
court  of  law.  I had  lived  for  many  years  in  a country  where  law  and 
not  justice  ruled  ; had  seen  much  of  the  iniquity  of  the  system,  but 
never  was  so  thoroughly  disgusted  as  in  this  instance.  1 remained 
but  a few  weeks  in  Tennessee,  and  without  the  slightest  feeling  of 
regret,  although  1 left  many  dear  relations  behind,  came  here  a com- 
parative stranger  to  all  around  me,  but  have  now^  made  many  dear 
friends,  all  of  whom  have  as  great  repugnance  to  the  horrible  traf- 
fic as  myself.” 

O,  how  heart-rending  the  condition  of  the  slave  in 
the  sweet  relation  of  family  and  home  ! The  Rev. 
R.  J.  Breckenridge  of  Kentucky,  thus  speaks  on  this 
point,  of  the  family  and  home  relations  of  the  slave. 
He  characterized  it  as  ^^the  most  atrocious  of  all  hu- 
man institutions,^’  as  a system  which  denies  to  a 
whole  class  of  human  beings  the  sacredness  of  mar- 
riage and  of  home,  compelling  them  to  live  in  a 
state  of  concubinage,  for  in  the  eye  of  the  law  no 
colored  slave-man  is  the  husband  of  any  wife  in  par- 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


25 


ticular,  nor  any  slave-woman  the  wife  of  any  hus- 
band in  particular,  and  no  slave-child  is  the  child  of 
any  parent  in  particular.” 

Are  you  a slave  ? You  are  then  in  degrading  mis- 
ery yourself,  and  your  children  must  be  in  the  same 
condition.  In  the  social  and  civil  state  you  are 
possessed  of  no  rights.  Cruel  injustice  may  be  per- 
petrated upon  you  in  the  presence  of  your  family, 
but  you  have  no  remedy.  You  can’t  enter  an  action 
against  the  wrong-doer.  Your  family  can’t  bear  wit- 
ness in  your  behalf,  in  a court  of  justice.  You  are 
not  recognised  as  an  intelligent  moral  agent.  The 
law  makes  you  a chattel^  a things — the  irresponsible 
property  of  your  master.  The  highest,  holiest  of  all 
rights,  a man’s  right  to  himself,  is  wholly  denied  to 
you.  You  can  find  no  sanctuary  in  the  church.  The 
church  dares  receive  you  only  on  the  consent  of  your 
master.  If  taken  into  her  bosom,  you  have  no  real  privi- 
lege there.  If  you  possess  a meek,  gentle,  Christian 
spirit,  this  too  is  so  much  merchandise  in  your  mas- 
ter’s hands.  Your  piety  enhances  your  value  upon 
the  auction-block.  Imperious  tyranny  compels  you 
to  toil  and  wear  away  life  for  the  profit  of  your 
master.  At  his  command  and  for  his  profit,  you  may 
at  any  time  be  parted  from  all  you  hold  dear,  and  be 
driven  in  the  slave-cofiie  to  a returnless  exilement, 
and  to  an  early  grave.  You  have  no  right  to  culti- 
vate the  powers  of  your  mind,  to  search  out  the  hid- 
den mysteries  of  nature,  to  study  the  character  of 
God,  and  to  seek  to  know  the  relations  which  bind 
you  to  the  Eternal.  The  darkness  of  hopeless  igno- 
rance is  brought  down  upon  your  mind,  to  extinguish 
the  immortal  spark  which  God  has  there  kindled. 

I was  witness  not  long  ago  to  a scene,  which  filled 
my  heart  with  deepest  sadness.  A noble-looking 
brother,  about -thirty  years  old,  just  from  the  prison- 
house  of  humsCn  bondage,  was  engaged  with  deter- 
mined purpose  in  learning  to  read  and  write  in  one 
2 


26 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


of  the  free  evening  schools  of  Salem.  A fine  lad  of 
twelve  years,  who  had  enjoyed  the  blessed  privileges 
of  our  free  schools,  was  patiently  and  lovingly  im- 
parting knowledge  to  the  eager  mind  of  this  poor 
brother,  who  had  been  shut  up  in  the  dark  prison  of 
slavery  during  thirty  years  of  his  life. 

The  cruelty,  the  damning  sin  of  thus  shutting  up 
millions  of  immortal  and  eager  minds  from  the  light 
and  ennobling  joys  of  knowledge,  cannot  be  portrayed 
by  mortal  pen  or  pencil.  How  appalling  the  picture 
of  human  depravity  which  is  presented  to  the  mind, 
as  we  look  upon  the  ignorance  and  degradation, 
the  mental  darkness  and  inaction,  in  which  the  slave 
is  kept  by  unrelenting  coercion  ! 

And  now  brother,  sister,  in  all  soberness,  I ask  the 
question,  could  you  endure  such  desolating  wrongs 
as  crush  life,  and  hope,  and  energy  in  the  soul  of  the 
slave  ? Who  wonders  that  slaves  sometimes  resist 
even  unto  death ! Oh,  how  wonderful  their  patience 
and  their  power  of  forgiveness  ! Who  can  wonder 
that  slaves  run  away  by  thousands,  braving  hunger 
and  thirst,  heat  and  cold,  and  all  the  perils  of  a long 
and  toilsome  journey  through  a hostile  land,  in  order 
to  escape  the  insupportable  horrors  of  slavery  ? 

In  the  very  capital  of  this  nation,  under  the  laws 
which  OU7'  representatives  enact,  seventy  human 
beings,  for  no  crime  but  attempting  to  gain  their 
liberty,  were  last  year  sold  to  the  fiendish  slave- 
traders,  chained  in  the  slave-gang,  and  marched  to 
fields  of  toil  and  death,  in  the  extreme  South.  I will 
lay  before  you  a letter  to  the  Albany  Evening  Jour- 
nal, written  by  Slingerland,  the  representative  from 
that  district  in  our  last  Congress.  The  letter  is 
headed,  the  ‘^Horrors  of  Slavery.’’  It  is  worthy  of 
implicit  credit,  for  it  comes  from  no  fanatic,  but  from 
a cool,  cautious  and  able  Whig,  who  voted  last  No- 
vember for  our  slaveholding  and  warrior  President. 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


2r 


HORRORS  OF  SLAVERY. 

Correspondence  of  the  Evening  Journal. 

Washington,  April  22,  1B48. 

Friend  Weed  — Last  evening,  in  passing  the  railroad  depot  I 
saw  quite  a large  number  of  colored  persons  gathered  round  one  of 
the  cars,  and  from  manifestations  of  grief  among  some  of  them,  I 
was  induced  to  draw  near  and  ascertain  the  cause.  I found  in  the 
car  towards  which  they  were  so  eagerly  gazing^/^y  colored  persons^ 
some  of  whom  were  nearly  as  white  as  myself.  A large  majority 
of  the  number  were  those  who  attempted  to  gain  their  liberty  last 
week,  in  the  schooner  Pearl.  About  half  of  them  were  females,  a 
few  of  whom  had  but  a slight  tinge  of  African  blood  in  their  veins  — 
they  were  finely  formed  and  beautiful.  The  men  were  ironed 
together,  and  the  whole  group  looked  sad  and  dejected.  At  each 
end  of  the  car  stood  a ruffian-looking  guard,  with  large  canes  in  their 
hands.  In  the  middle  of  the  car  stood  the  notorious  slave-dealer  of 
Baltimore.  He  had  purchased  the  men  and  women  around  him, 
and  was  taking  his  departure  for  Georgia.  While  observing  this 
old  grey-headed  dealer  in  the  bodies  and  souls  of  men,  the  Chap- 
lain of  the  Senate  entered  the  car,  and  took  his  brother  by  the 
hand,  chatted  with  him  for  a short  time,  and  seemed  to  view  the 
heart-rending  scene  before  him  with  as  little  concern  as  we  v/ould 
look  upon  cattle  ! I know  not  whether  he  came  with  a view  to 
sanctify  the  act,  or  pronounce  the  parting  blessing  ; but  this  I do 
know,  that  he  justifies  slavery  1 A Presbyterian  minister,  who  owned 
one  of  the  fugitives,  was  the  first  to  strike  a bargain  with  the  slave- 
dealer,  and  make  merchandise  of  God’s  image.  Some  of  the  color- 
ed people  outside,  as  well  as  in  the  car,  were  weeping  most  bitterly. 
I learned  that  many  families  were  separated.  Wives  were  there  to 
take  leave  of  their  husbands,  and  husbands  of  their  wives  ; children 
of  their  parents,  and  parents  of  their  children.  Friends  parting  with 
friends,  and  the  tenderest  ties  of  humanity  severed  at  a single  bid  of 
the  inhuman  slave-broker  before  them.  A husband,  in  the  meridian 
of  life,  bogged  to  see  the  partner  of  his  bosom.  He  protested  that 
she  was  free  — that  she  had  free  papers,  and  was  torn  away  from 
him,  and  shut  up  in  the  jail.  He  clambered  up  to  one  of  the  win- 
dows of  the  car  to  see  his  wife,  and,  as  she  w^as  reaching  forward 
her  hand  to  him,  the  black-hearted  slave-dealer  ordered  him  down. 
He  did  not  obey.  The  husband  and  wife,  with  tears  streaming 
down  their  cheeks,  besought  him  to  let  them  speak  to  each  other. 
But  no  ; he  was  knocked  down  from  the  car,  and  ordered  away  ! 
The  bystanders  could  hardly  restiain  themselves  from  laying  violent 
hands  upon  the  brute.  This  is  but  a faint  description  of  the  scene 
which  took  place  within  a few  rods  of  the  Capitol,  and  under  enact- 
ments recognised  by  Congress.  Oh,  what  a revolting  scene  to  a 
feeling  heart,  and  what  a retribution  awaits  the  actors  ! Will  not 
their  wailings  of  anguish  reach  the  ears  of  the  Most  High  1 ‘ Ven- 

geance is  mine  — I will  repay,  saith  the  Lord.’  ” 


28 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


In  view  of  such  enormities,  I ask  you,  does  not  this 
people  tower  above  the  nations  of  the  earth  in  crime, 
as  much  as  we  rise  above  them  in  privileges  and 
opportunities  ? Can  there  be  a doubt  in  any  intelli- 
gent mind  of  our  imperative  duty  to  pray  and  to 
strive,  with  unceasing  exertion,  for  the  immediate 
and  unconditional  overthrow  of  American  Slavery  ? 
Can  the  Christian  forget  the  slave  in  his  prayers  ? 
Can  the  Christian  minister  be  silent  in  the  sacred 
desk  respecting  his  brother  in  bonds?  Can  any 
doctrine  or  preaching,  not  imbued,  warmed  up,  and 
alive  with  the  great  spirit  of  Christian  humanity, 
glorify  God  or  save  man  ? Can  the  good  man  pass 
by,  with  unconcern,  the  wounded,  stripped,  and 
bleeding  slave  ? Can  he  join  in  the  fellowship  of 
approving  love,  with  the  robbers  who  strip  their  help- 
less victims  of  their  all,  and  then  leave  them  to  perish 
by  the  wayside  ? Can  he,  in  any  case,  under  any 
circumstances,  in  any  emergency,  recognise  as  true 
Christians,  the  priest  and  the  Levite,  who  see  these 
millions  of  pleading,  dying  bondmen  around  them, 
but  put  forth  no  eaxnest,  manly  effort  to  aid  th,em  ? 

These  are  solemn,  searching  questions.  To  con- 
science and  to  God  I have  answered  them ; and  be 
the  consequences  what  they  may,  I take^you  to  wit- 
ness this  day  my  vow.  As  far  as  possible,  I will  put 
myself  in  the  place  of  the  slave.  No  time  and  no 
place  shall  be  witness  to  my  silence  in  regard  to  the 
atrocious  sin  of  slaveholding.  My  honest  rebuke 
shall  never  be  wanting  towards  those  who  commit 
the  crime  of  supporting,  by  vote  or  Christian  recogni- 
tion, or  by  criminal  silence,  the  slaveholder.  With 
all  the  earnestness  of  my  heart  I will  plead  the  cause 
of  the  three  million  members  of  the  human  brothier- 
hood,  now  chained  in  the  great  Southern  prison  of 
cruelty  and  woe.  I will  plead  their  cause  upon  the 
Sabbath  and  in  the  sanctuary^  in  the  world  and  in 
the  social  circle.  I entreat  you  to  'ponder  upon  your 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


29 


duty.  Let  the  light  of  eternal  truth  shine  upon  your 
path.  With  a sublime  trust  in  God,  move  onward 
and  upward  in  the  path  of  holy,  self-denying  love. 

Let  us  now  dwell  a moment,  in  thought,  upon  the 
advancement  which  the  slave-power  has  made  m its 
system  of 'morality^  during  sixty  years  of  remarkable 
human  progress.  Washington  and  Jefferson  unhesi- 
tatingly spoke  of  slavery  as  an  unmitigated  and  fear- 
ful evil.  They  publicly  expressed  an  earnest  desire 
to  see  the  whole  system  overthrown.  But  now^  while 
the  world  is  con^lsed  with  the  rousing  energies  of 
oppressed  millions  struggling  for  freedom,  in  the  noon- 
time of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  inhuman  position 
is  taken  and  tenaciously  maintained,  by  nearly  all  the 
leading  men  of  the  entire  South,  that  slavery  is  a 
blessing — the  corner-stone  of  democracy  — the  di- 
vinely-appointed relation  between  the  laborer  and  the 
employer.  How  appalling  the  demonstration  which 
this  fact  affords  of  the  degrading  influence  which 
slavery  exerts  upon  the  public  mind  ! 

The  slave-poAver  is  now  operating  with  all  its  old 
energy  and  unanimity,  to  inflict  the  curse  of  human 
bondage  upon  New  Mexico  and  California.  Slaves 
are  already  bought,  and  sold,  and  tasked  in  these  ter- 
ritories. It  is  estimated  by  a strong-minded  slave- 
holder and  an  earnest  slavery  propagandist,  that  ten 
thousand  slaves  will  be  introduced  into  California 
the  present  year.  Thousands  of  slaveholders  are  on 
their  way  to  the  land  of  golden  promise,  with  the 
strong  determination  to  plant  slavery  there.  I know 
that  many  true-hearted  anti-slavery  men  have  like- 
wise gone  from  the  Free  States  to  California,  who 
will  exert  a manly  and  a faithful  influence  against  the 
establishment  of  slavery  there.  I thank  God  they 
are  to  be  on  the  ground.  I wish  a hundred  thousand 
faithful  abolitionists  were  this  day  congregated  on  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  Sea  and  in  the  valleys  of  Cali- 
fornia. I know  it  is  said  by  many  able  men,  that 
2* 


30 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


there  is  no  danger  of  the  establishment  of  slavery  in 
these  territories.  But  I cannot  agree  with  them  in 
this  view.  The  warning  record  of  our  nation’s  history 
tells  me  that  there  is  and  must  be  imminent  danger, 
without  the  specific  and  unflinching  prohibition  of 
slavery  in  all  our  territories  by  Congress.-  Nothing 
but  the  most  unwearied  vigilance,  untiring  effort,  and 
united  heartiness,  on  the  part  of  the  true  friends  of 
man,  can  prevent  the  triumph  of  the  slave-power  in 
its  present  atrocious  scheme  for  planting  this  desolat- 
ing curse  upon  the  soil  of  a vast  jCPnsettled  empire, 
which  is  now  free  by  law. 

Well,  let  slavery  triumph  in  this  enterprise,  and 
you  prepare  the  way  for  the  annexation  of  the  re- 
maining Mexican  States,  Guatimala  and  the  West 
India  Islands,  to  our  Union  as  slave  States.  And 
what  then  ? Why  then  the  slave-power  would  con- 
trol this  country.  Then  nothing  but  the  sword  and 
the  fagot  could  finish  our  drama  of  national  crime 
and  retribution.  No  intelligent  man,  at  all  acquainted 
with  the  history  of  this  country  for  the  last  twenty 
years,  doubts  the  earnestness  or  tenacity  of  the  slave- 
power’s  purpose  to  make  slavery  the  overshadowing 
influence  in  our  national  councils,  by  its  extension  to 
the  Isthmus  and  to  the  Islands  of  the  Great  Gulf,  and 
by  the  introduction  of  all  this  vast  territory,  as  inde- 
pendent States,  into  our  Federal  Union.  Nor  can 
any  sane  mind,  cognizant  of  the  past  and  awake  to 
the  present,  doubt  the  imminence  of  our  danger  from 
these  infernal  schemes  of  the  slave-power. 

The  slave-power  demands  not  the  negro  alone  as 
its  victim.  Complexion  has  nothing  to  do  with  the 
enslavement  of  human  beings.  Hundreds  and  thous- 
ands of  slaves  at  the  South  are  as  white  as  you  or  I. 
The  slave-power  demands  the  enslavement  of  the 
laborer^  And  this  is  by  no  means  an  idle  demand. 
Let  slavery  continue  another  sixty  years,  steadily 
extending  its  dominion ; let  the  slave-power  control 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


31 


the  destinies  of  this  people  during  these  coming  years  ; 
and  as  surely  as  a just  God  reigneth,  the  prospective 
atrocities  of  the  slave-power  will  be  accomplished. 
And  then  the  universal  relation  of  laborer  to  employ- 
er, in  this  Western  world,  will  be  that  of  slave  to 
master.  Capital  will  own  the  soil,  and  the  tillers 
thereof;  the  work-shop  and  the  toiling  artisan,  the 
implements  of  labor,  and  the  millions  who  use  them. 
This  whole  land  will  then  be  a land  of  whips  and 
chains,  and  branding-irons  — a land  of  heartless 
tyrants  and  cringing  slaves  ! ! How  true  then  the 
sentiments  of  our  Resolutions.  It  is  the  duty  of  every 
man,  woman,  and  child,  both  North  and  South  of  the 
dividing  line,  to  do  all  that  can  be  done  to  secure  the 
immediate  emancipation  of  our  brethren  in  bonds ; 
to  labor,  in  and  out  of  season,  for  the  instant  and 
entire  overthrow  of  American  Slavery.  This  is  the 
pressing  present  issue  before  us,  vital  both  to  our  well- 
being and  to  the  well-being  of  our  children  after  us. 
Neglect  this,  and  you  neglect  the  great,  the  momen- 
tous duty  of  our  day.  Neglect  this,  and  I care  not 
what  else  you  do  perform,  you  are  faithless  stewards 
in  the  household  of  your  Lord. 

When  I forget  the  slave,  and  cease  to  labor  for  his 
emancipation  from  bondage,  and  for  his  introduction 
to  the  glorious  privileges  of  the  equal  and  universal 
brotherhood  which  Jesus  came  to  establish,  Then 
let  my  right  hand  forget  her  cunnings  and  my 
tongue  cleave  to  the  roof  of  my  mouth. 

Let  us  now  briefly  consider  the  agency  by  which 
the  slave-power  acts  and  rules.  The  slaveholders, 
acting  alone,  could  never  have  wrought  out  a tithe  of 
the  vast  and  atrocious  enterprise  which  has  been 
accomplished  by  the  slave-power.  Union  and 
energy  would  never  avail  five  hundred  thousand  men 
in  an  earnest  encounter  with  fifteen  millions.  One 
nian,  in  the  most  unrighteous  cause  that  ever  enlisted 
the  abandoned  and  the  reprobate,  could  not  stand 


32 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


his  ground  a moment  against  thirty  men,  enrolled 
under  the  banner  of  Humanity.  But  the  slave- 
power  has  ruled  the  country  and  extended  wide  the 
curse  of  human  bondage,  by  securing  the  neutrality, 
or  the  open  support  of  the  men  of  Avealth,  of  com- 
manding influence,  and  of  great  learning  through  our 
whole  land.  The  great  majority  of  our  whole  peo- 
ple, while  at  heart  loving  liberty  and  hating  oppres- 
sion, yet,  actuated  too  much  by  the  blind  spirit  of 
party  bigotry,  and  led  on  by  these  compromisers  in 
their  party  action,  have  acquiesced  in  this  unholy 
alliance  with  the  slave-power.  Hoav  many  honest, 
well-sustained  efforts  against  the  aggressions  of  the 
slave-power  can  you  find  in  the  public  life  of  the 
giant  mind  of  this  State,  during  the  thirty  years  that 
he  has  acted  an  important  part  in  the  councils  of  this 
nation?  Alas  for  Humanity ‘that  it  should  be  so! 
Hardly  one.  But  on  the  other  hand,  you  can  find 
numberless  cases  of  shameful  concession  to,  and 
cowardly  compromise  with,  the  dark  spirit  of  slavery, 
in  the  public  life  of  Massachusetts’  most  honored 
son  ! And  what  is  said  of  him  may  be  said  also  of 
nearly  every  influential  statesman  acting  in  our 
government  for  the  past  thirty  years.  Without  doubt, 
the  people  in  their  stupid  clamor  about  banks  and 
tariffs,  forgetting  entirely  the  down-trodden  slave, 
and  mobbing  the  few  who  dared  to  plead  the  cause  of 
the  despised  bondman,  are  partly  accountable  for  this 
wicked  subserviency  on  the  part  of  their  public  ser- 
vants to  the  slave-power.  And  so  also,  still  more, 
has  the  shameful  subserviency  of  our  leading  states- 
men exerted  a potent  influence  upon  the  people,  to 
make  them  the  besotted  allies  of  their  deadliest 
enemy.  Thank  God ! a change  is  working  in  the 
public  mind.  The  seal  is  broken,”  and  true  men 
are  leading  to  the  encounter  the  mustering  hosts  of 
Humanity. 

The  slave-power  has  been  aided  in  the  execution 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


33 


of  its  nefarious  schemes  by  a venal  and  time-serving 
press.  And  here  is  now  one  of  its  most  potent  sup- 
porters. I speak  not  now  of  papers  which  are  merely 
partisan  and  political  in  their  character,  for  such 
papers  must  betray  and  crucify  Humanity.  Their 
aim  is  mean,  cruel,  and  unholy,  and  their  influence 
is  necessarily  devilish.  Such  papers  are  found  one 
day  arrayed  against  a universal  and  unmitigated 
wrong,  as  the  democratic  journals  of  New  England 
were  in  1842  and  1843,  against  the  annexation  of 
Texas  to  our  Union ; and  the  next  day  you  shall  And 
them  all  joining  with  corrupt  political  leaders  in 
shouting  for  this  great  crime  as  a leading  party  issue  ! 
You  cannot  say  that  they  violate  conscience,  or  sell 
principle,  for  they  are  manifestly  destitute  of  both. 
It  is  their  trade  to  lie,  and  to  pander  to  the  worst  pas- 
sions of  men,  and  they  glory  iniheir  shame.  We 
leave  them  to  the  contempt  of  virtuous  intelligence. 
We  expect  no  aid  from  them  in  the  cause  of  the 
human  brotherhood.  And  we  only  say  of  them,  that 
true  men  will  give  them  no  support  or  countenance; 
but  leave  them  to  sink  by  the  weight  of  their  inherent 
baseness. 

But  I would  speak  an  earnest  word  of  remonstrance 
against  the  course  pursued  by  papers,  which,  profess- 
ing to  seek  truth  and  duty,  and  the  promotion  of  the 
well-being  of  man,  do  yet  give  efficient  aid  to  the 
slave-power.  The  New  York  Tribune,  professing  to 
understand  the  high  duties  of  our  social  brotherhood, 
g,nd  often  discoursing  most  eloquently  upon  the  rights 
of  down-trodden  man,  pollutes  its  columns  with  ful- 
some adulation  of  our  President  as  a peace  man  ; as 
an  honest  man  ; as  a humane  man  ! A peace  man  ? 
engaged  in  war  from  his  youth,  as  the  trade  of  his 
life,  and  not  only  so,  but  the  leader  in  the  two  most 
infamous  wars  which  the  present  century  has  wit- 
nessed! An  honest  man  ? daily  robbing  hundreds  of 
fellow-members  of  the  human  family  of  their  hard 


34 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


earnings,  and  building  up  a large  estate  by  legalized 
piracy  ! A humane  man  ? the  enslaver  of  men,  wo- 
men, and  children  ! the  butcher  of  thousands  in  wars 
of  atrocious  injustice  ! Alas,  how  utterly  perverted 
a great  mind  becomes  by  the  sacrifice  of  principle  to 
party,  or  to  an  imaginary  self-interest ! 

Turn  now  to  our  religious  papers.  Do  the  fervent 
appeals  of  a suffering  brotherhood  meet  a true  and 
loving  response  from  these  professed  oracles  of  ihe 
blessed  Jesus  ? Alas,  how  far  from  true  devotion  to 
God  and  a suffering  world  they  stand  ! We  will  not 
say  a word  of  the  Observers  ’’  and  Puritan  Re- 
corders,’’ since  their  place  and  influence  are  obviously 
partisan,  sectarian,  and  inhuman  ; but  we  would  and 
we  must  protest  against  the  compromising  course 
pursued  on  this  vital  question  by  such  papers  as  the 
‘‘ Congregationalist*”  and  the  ^^Independent.”  These 
papers  were  recently  established  with  the  explicit 
promise  that  they  should  be  thoroughly  anti-slavery. 
Thousands  of  earnest  abolitionists,  trusting  in  their 
professions,  take  and  read  them.  It  is  our  right  to 
demand  of  the  editors  of  these  papers,  that  they  take, 
and  unflinchingly  maintain,  high  ground  of  opposition 
to,  and  war  against  American  Slavery.  It  is  the  duty 
of  every  sincere  man  and  woman,  who  loves  the 
ruined  slave,  to  withhold  from  them  all  support,  if 
they  fail  to  plant  themselves  on  this  ground.  Where 
are  the  editors  of  the  Congregationalist  ? All  of  them 
keepers  of  our  late  National  Past,  without  one  word 
of  rebuke  for  the  evident  hypocrisy  of  that  act.  All 
of  them  commenders  of  the  death-bed  repentance  and 
sprinkling  of  our  late  most  wicked  President,  and  that 
without  one  word  of  the  last  fearful  crime  of  his  dying 
hour,  in  leaving  his  outraged  slaves  to  toil  on  in 
hopeless  despair,  and  to  die  in  chains.  One  of  the 
three  responsible  editors  of  that  paper,  famous  years 
ago  for  his  organic  ” folly  at  the  meeting  of  the 
American  Board  in  Brooklyn,  has  just  voted  against 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


35 


the  petition  of  the  colored  citizens  of  Boston,  for  the 
free  enjoyment  of  their  precious  rights  to  the  public 
schools  of  Boston,  because,  as  he  says,  in  justifying 
his  vote,  public  opinion  is  not  ready  for  the  right- 
eous measure.’’  The  three  editors  of  this  paper,  and 
the  three  men  at  the  head  of  the  Independent,  justify 
and  applaud  the  course  which  the  American  Board 
has  just  taken  in  their  annual  meeting  at  Pittsfield, 
upon  the  subject  of  slavery  in  the  Mission  Churches. 
And  one  of  their  number,  the  leading  minister  of  New 
Haven,  is  the  author  of  a recent  report,  accepted  by 
a large  body  of  Ininisters,  in  which  it  is  openly 
stated,  that  the  relation  of  the  master  to  the  slave,  is 
not  jt;er  se  sinful ! Let  who  can,  hope  for  good  from 
such  a religious  press.  / caiinot.  God  grant  that 
true  men  and  true  women  may  leave  these  compro- 
mising papers  to  die,  and  their  memory  to  rot.  When 
shall  we  see  this  sin  of  compromise  with  wrong,  of 
which  our  public  men  are  so  generally,  so  deeply 
guilty,  placed  as  it  should  be  at  the  head  of  all  con- 
ceivable unworthiness  ? 

Of  how  many  of  our  papers  professing  to  be  anti-  * 
slavery,  we  are  compelled  in  sadness  to  say,  there  is 
no  independence,  no  manliness,  no  reliable  principle, 
no  clear  light  of  truth,  no  abiding  devotedness  tOv 
right,  to  be  found  in  them.  Witness  the  unworthy 
and  pro-slavery  defence  of  Friar  Mathew,  for  his  cra- 
ven submission  to  slavery,  in  the  Chronotype.  A 
stronger  ally  the  slave-power  never  had  than  the 
editor  of  that  paper,  in  his  attempted  exculpation  of 
the  Irish  priest  and  compromiser,  for  his  ignoring  in 
this  country  the  unpopular  cause  of  the  slave,  which 
at  home^  a popular  cause^  he  had  embraced,  and  join- 
ed O’Connell  and  others  in  aiding  along  ! Merciful 
God  ! give  to  the  hosts  of  humanity,  as  leaders  in  the 
crisis  of  this  great  day,  men  of  the  uncompromising 
spirit  and  true  devotion  to  right,  which  shone  out  so 
steadfastly  and  brightly  in  our  Great  Captain!” 


36 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


Jesus  freely,  lovingly  gave  His  life  to  ransom  and 
save  us.  Oh,  may  we  be  ready  to  die  for  that  pre- 
cious brotherhood  which  He  has  established,  if  the 
path  of  duty  should  lead  us  to  the  Cross ! 

Again,  the  slave-power  has  used,  and  is  now  using, 
a false  religion  and  a faithless  ministry  to  extend  and 
perpetuate  the  worst  diabolism  the  sun  ever  shone 
upon — -American  Slavery.  Albert  Barnes,  one  of 
the  ablest  Presbyterian  ministers  of  this  country,  de- 
clares : — Most  sincerely  do  we  believe,  that,  if  all 
Christians  in  these  States  were  to  ‘ do  with  their 
might  ’ what  they  can  find  to  be  done,  — the  love  of 
Christ  constraining  them  ; — if  they  would  detach 
themselves  from  all  personal  connection  with  the 
system  of  slavery,  so  that  their  influence  should  not 
‘ throw  the  sacred  shield  of  religion  over  so  great  an 
evil,  there  is  no  public  sentiment  in  this  land  — there 
could  be  none  created,  that  would  resist  the  power  of 
such  testimony.  There  is  no  power  out  of  the 
church,  that  could  sustain  slavery  an  hour,  if  it  were 
not  sustained  in  it.  Not  a blow  need  be  struck.  Not 
an  unkind  word  need  be  uttered.  No  man^s  motive 
need  be  impugned ; no  man’s  proper  rights  invaded. 
All  that  is  needful  is,  for  each  Christian  man,  and  for 
every  Christian  church,  to  stand  up  in  the  sacred  ma- 
jesty of  such  a solemn  testimony ; to  free  themselves 
from  all  connection  with  the  evil,  and  utter  a calm 
and  deliberate  voice  to  the  world,  and  the  work 

WILL  BE  DONE.  ’ ” 

Strange  that  one,  who  can  give  utterance  to  such 
true  and  noble  sentiments  as  these,  should  still  con- 
sent to  be  connected,  in  ecclesiastical  fellowship,  with 
a slaveholding  church,  as  the  Presbyterian  Church 
South  is. 

Another  of  our  ablest  writers  says  : But  for  the 
countenance  of  the  Northern  Church,  the  Southern 
conscience  would  long  since  have  awakeiied  to  a 
sense  of  its  guilt,  and  the  impious  sight  of  a church 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


37 


made  up  of  slaveholders,  and  called  the  church  of 
Christ,  would  have  been  scouted  from  the  world.’’ 

This  is  strong  language  ; but  no  man  who  under- 
stands the  tremendous  influence  which  the  church 
exerts,  can,  for  a moment,  doubt  its  correctness.  The 
stern  and  sorrowful  truth  is,  the  American  Church  is 
the  slaveholder’s  strong  hiding-place.  John  C.  Cal- 
houn is  a ruling  elder  in  a Presbyterian  church.  The 
religion  of  the  South  — which  is  wholly  a thing  of 
forms,  psalm-singing,  praying,  preaching,  Sabbath- 
keeping, and  such  like,  but  which  has  no  vital  power, 
as  the  connection  of  the  Southern  Church  with 
slavery  proves  — is  referred  - to  every  day,  to  prove 
that  slaveholders  maybe  good,  pious  men  ! It  is  true, 
a man  wishes  to  be  blinded  who  is  deceived  by  these 
things. 

But  I will  let  facts  speak  for  themselves,  in  re- 
spect to  the  connection  of  the  Northern  Church  with 
slavery.  The  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.  have  just  closed  their 
annual  meeting  at  Pittsfield.  What  have  they  done 
upon  the  slavery  question  ? In  a spirit  of  unholy 
compromise,  they  have  ignored  the  whole  question. 
Their  influence  is  now  on  the  side  of  Southern 
Slavery.  Their  feet  are  on  the  necks  of  the  slaves  ! 
Every  dollar  now  given  to  sustain  them,  is  given 
against  Humanity  ! Do  you  ask,  what  signifies  the 
fact  that  the  American  Board  of  Foreign  Missions,  is 
a pro-slavery  body  ? It  signifies  just  this  : the  Con- 
gregational and  Presbyterian  Churches  of  the  Free 
States,  which  sustain  that  society^  are  pro-slavery,  and  ' 
in  league  with  the  slave-power.  A very  significant 
fact  for  Christians  in  these  churches  to  consider. 
Again,  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church  North,  is 
in  league  and  full  fellowship  with  slaveho],ding 
churches.  Hope  Slatter,  the  notorious  slave-trader, 
is  one  of  the  liberal  supporters  of  this  church. 
Hence,  the  irifluence  of  all  these  churches  is  neces- 
sarily against  Jesus  and  Humanity.  The  same  may 
3 


38 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


be  said  and  proved  of  nearly  all  the  denominational 
bodies  of  professed  Christians  in  all  the  Free  States. 
There  are  Independent  churches,  which  are  fully  and 
gloriously  anti-slavery.  May  God  increase  them 
till  our  land  is  dotted,  from  ocean  to  ocean,  with  true 
Christian  churches,  obedient  to  the  principles  of 
Liberty,  Equality,  a.nd  Fraternity,  which  shine  out 
so  clearly  on  every  page  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus,  and 
in  every  act  of  His  true  life. 

The  Wesleyan  Church  is  the  only  denomination 
of  which  I have  any  knowledge  in  New  England, 
that  professes  to  take  uncompromising  anti-slavery 
ground.  And  even  in  this  church,  a leading  man 
openly  occupied  last  autumn,  and  without  open  re- 
buke,, a pro-slavery  position,  by  voting  and  election- 
eering for  our  present  slaveholding  President.  But 
I would  not  be  so  unjust  as  to  class  the  Wesleyan 
Church  with  the  other  denominations  of  New  Eng- 
land, as  being  connected  in  ecclesiastical  relations 
with  slaveholders.  I believe  it  to  be  not  only  free 
from  all  such  wicked  relations,  but  also  earnestly  de- 
sirous of  doing  a faithful  part  in  the,  great  work  of 
Sanctified  Humanity,  which  is  now  calling  upon  all 
men  for  instant  aid.  In  this  work,  may  God  speed 
the  Wesleyan  Church.  In  mercy,  may  it  be  freed 
from  the  baneful  presence  of  all  pro-slavery  men,  by 
their  conversion  to  the  truth,  or  if  that  be  impos- 
sible, by  their  expulsion  from  her  communion. 

In  speaking  of  other  denominations,  truth  compels 
me  to  say,  that  they  are  found  fearfully  recreant, 
judged  by  the  unerring  rule  of  Christ:  ‘‘By  their 
fruits  ye  shall  know  them.’’  Look  at  their  fruits. 
In  the  momentous  crisis  of  last  year,  doctors  of 
divinity  and  ministers  of  great  influence,  by  hundreds 
and  thousands,  voted  for  the  bloody  leader  of  our 
armies  in  their  unholy  crusade  against  Humanity. 
I think  I may  safely  say,  in  ninety-nine  chuches  out 
of  every  hundred  of  these  denominations  in  New 


• ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


39 


England,  professed  followers  of  the  uncompromising 
Jesus,  voted  for  the  warrior  slaveholder,  who  keeps 
in  bondage  hundreds  of  his  fellow-men.  By  their 
votes  did  they  aid  to  elevate  him  to  the  Presidency, 
reeking  in  the  blood  of  the  slaughtered  Indians  and 
Mexicans,  and  made  rich  by  the  unrighteous  gains  of 
unpaid  toil.  It  is  a significant  fact,  too,  that  a large 
majority  of  the  ministers,  having  charge  of  these 
churches,  preached  no  earnest,  truthful,  and  timely 
discourse,  during  the  last  year’s  canvas,  respecting 
the  atrocious  sin  of  voting  for  a slaveholder.  And 
now^  American  Slavery  is  the  last  topic  of  Sabbath 
discourse,  on  which  an  earnest  word  is  heard  from 
their  pulpits.  American  Slavery  is  the  subject  on 
which  the  least  is  now  said,  by  these  ministers,  of  all 
subjects  which  interest  the  public  mind.  Now  bear 
in  mind  that  this  is  no  secondary  question,  but,  in 
stern  reality,  the  leading,  most  pressing,  and  most 
vital  Christian  reform  of  our  day,  and  then  decide 
yourselves,  in  view  of  the  spirit  of  silence  and  compro- 
mise manifested  thereon ; if  it  be  not  true,  that  a false 
religion  and  a faithless  ministry  aid  and  support  the 
abhorrent  slave-power. 

The  American  Church  is  deeply  dyed  in  guilt,  in 
respect  to  the  enslavement  and  ruin  of  the  millions  of 
our  brethren,  who  are  held  in  fetters  to  a fearful 
extent,  by  her  alliance  with  the  slave-power.  Min- 
isters and  people^  of  every  county  in  every  State  of 
this  Union ^ go  from  the  sanctuary  to  the  ballot-box, 
and  vote^  for  a noted  murderer  and  man-stealer,  help- 
ing to  elevate  to  the  highest  office  within  the  gift  of 
this  people,  a man  whose  whole  life  is  stained 
with  undisguised  and  unspeakable  crimes.  Are  they 
dealt  with  for  this  atrocious  sin  ? Not  one  of  them. 
Their  character  as  Christians  is  unaffected  and  un- 
stained, in  the  view  of  the  Church,  by  this  open  league 
with  hell.  The  American  Church,  as  a hody^  oppose 
and  brand  as  come-outers  and  infidels,  every  one  who 


40 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


is  faithful  in  the  remembrance  of  the  slave,  as  the 
gospel  commands^  as  bound  xoith  him.  The  Ameri- 
can Church,  as  a hody^  attempt  to  throw  the  Bible 
and  the  Sabbath  down  upon,  to  crush  the  dying 
slave  ! 

I can  point  to  churches  which  were  formed  as  anti- 
slavery churches,  in  which  a faithful  anti-slavery 
sermon  is  not  preached  during  one  of  the  fifty-two 
Sabbaths  of  the  year.  I recently  attended  the  exer- 
cises, ordaining  and  installing  a minister  over  such  a 
church.  Three  hours  were  consumed  in  pointing  out 
the  duties  of  pastor  and  people  ; but  not  one  minute 
was  given  in  prayer  or  speaking  to  the  millions  of 
slaves,  who  plead  in  vain  of  that  church  for  a remem- 
brance of  sympathy,  of  love,  and  of  ceaseless  toil,  such 
as  God  commands.  Such  churches  are  as  truly  and 
as  fearfully  pro-slavery  as  the  church  to  which  the 
slaveholder,  Henry  Clay,  belongs,  or  the  one  in  whose 
communion  Thomas  Hart  Benton  is  found,  or  that 
of  which  John  C.  Calhoun  is  a ruling  elder.  What 
kind  of  a Christian  church  would  that  be,  in  which 
no  sermon  about  Christ  should  be  preached,  from 
one  end  of  the  year  to  the  other  ? Such  an  organi- 
zation might  be  a Jewish  or  a Mahomedan  church, 
but  to  call  it  a Christian  church  would  be  a naked 
fraud. 

It  is  with  unfeigned  sorrow  that  I speak  of  such 
facts,  for  my  heart  longs,  yea,  it  faints  to  see  such  a 
church  in  our  world,  as  Jesus  Christ  established,  Avith 
power  to  reform  the  Avorld,  by  the  establishment  of 
Righteousness,  Peace,  and  a Brotherhood  of  Love, 
throughout  the  length  and  breath  of  the  earth. 

But  I would  not  let  any  feelings  or  sympathies 
blind  me  to  the  truth.  Neither  would  I for  any  con- 
sideration of  selfish  interest  or  short-sighted  expedi- 
ency, suppress  one  jot  or  tittle  of  my  honest  convic- 
tion of  what  is  the  truth.  Hence  it.  is,  that  I feel 
compelled  to  say,  that  the  American  Church,  as  a 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


41 


hody^  occupies  to-day,  a false,  faithless  and  destruc- 
tive position,  in  regard  to  the  most  atrocious  and  de- 
basing sin  of  our  world,  American  Slavery  ! 

But  let  us  not  forget  to  look  to  ourselves,  in 
searching  out  the  Avicked  agency,  by  which  the 
slave-power  has  secured  obedience  to  its  abhorrent 
commands.  But  feAV  of  us  can  say,  that  we  are  in- 
nocent of  having  harbored  in  our  hearts  a wicked 
prejudice  towards  the  negro.  Few,  if  any  of  us, 
who  have  not  been  guilty  of  indifference  towards  the 
pleading,  wretched  slave.  All  such  prejudice  is  of 
the  devil,  and  all  such  indifference  is  direct  and 
potent  support  of  the  slave-power.  Few  of  us  have 
remembered  the  slave  as  bound  Avith  him  ; and;^  failing 
to  do  all  this,  we  forget  to  minister  to  the  Lord  of  all, 
Avho  is  chained  and  lacerated  in  the  bondage  and 
sufferings  of  the  least  of  his  brethren,  languishing 
and  dying  in  the  great  Southern  prison  land!  Re- 
pentance is  therefore  our  duty.  The  strongest  obli- 
gation lays  hold  upon  us,  deeply  to  deplore  the  sin 
of-our  nation’’  and  our  sin  in  holding  slaves,”  and 
to  do  all  we  can  to  secure  the  immediate  emanci- 
pation of  all  in  bondage,”  and  their  immediate  intro- 
duction to  a full  participation  in  the  glorious  privi- 
leges of  the  Great  Christian  Brotherhood.  The 
negro  is  not  to  be  sent  to  Africa,  nor  driven  across  the 
line  of  Western  civilization.  This  land  is  his  native 
home^  as  truly  as  it  is  ours.  He  has  the  same  in- 
alienable right  to  enjoy  fully  and  unmolested  the  civil, 
social  and  moral  privileges  of  this  country,  that  we  have. 
God  is  his  father  as  truly  as  he  is  ours.  The  same  glo- 
rious and  immortal  endowments  are  bestowed  upon 
him  that  Ave  possess.  We  are  brethren  of  the  same  fa- 
mily, and  our  destiny  must  unite  and  run  on  together. 
We  cannot  permit  the  negro  to  remain  in  bondage, 
for  in  so  doing  we  are  forging  chains  for  our  children. 
And  if  we  falter  and  fail  in  the  encounter  to  which 
we  are  noAv  called  against  the  desolating  inroads 
of  the  slave-power,  our  children’s  children  will  there- 


42 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


by  reap  a harvest  of  sufferings  and  woe.  Here  then  we 
take  an  immovable  stand.  We  can  do  no  otherwise. 
May  God  help  us.  for  this  is  Jehovah’s  cause. 

In  conclusion,  allow  me  to  say  a word  to  the 
young.  Young  men  and  young  women  ! I would 
that  I possessed  the  power  to  set  before  you,  with  a 
divine  eloquence,  the  glory  and  the  greatness  of  the 
mission  to  which  you  are  called.  No  generation 
ever  came  upon  the  stage  of  active  life  with  such 
vast  opportunities  for  doing  good  with  such  mo- 
mentous responsibilities  for  the  improvement  of  life, 
as  you,  who  are  now  coming  up  into  your  fathers’ 
and  mothers’  places  in  society.  Those  who  have 
gone  before  you,  leading  you  along  in  your  early 
ways,  have  passed  the  summit,  and  are  now  descending 
the  hill  of  life.  Their  habits  of  thought  and  modes 
of  action,  were  long  ago  fixed  and  settled.  Their 
political  prejudices  long  ago  became  strong,  through 
the  potent  influence  of  years  of  party  controversy. 
The  great  work  of  Humanity,  which  we  are  now 
called  to  undertake  and  accomplish,  imperatively  de- 
mands of  us,  to  lay  aside  all  prejudice,  both  party 
and  sectarian  animosities.  Forgetting  the  paltry  ob- 
jects of  past  party  divisions,  we  must  awake  to  the 
noble  ambition,  to  the  fixed  purpose  of  soul,  to  live, 
pray,  love  and  toil,  for  the  world’s  redemption  and 
salvation,  in  Jesus  Christ.  We  must  press  on  and 
ever  onward  in  this  only  true  and  worthy  life,  till 
we  arrive  at  our  glorious  home,  and  come  to  perfec- 
tion of  knowledge,  holiness,  love  and  joy,  in  the 
presence  of  our  Lord. 

This  work  of  reform  <^annot  be  accomplished,  nor 
really  advanced,  by  minds  controlled  by  sectarian  or 
party  prejudice.  Perhaps  we  ought  not  to  expect, 
that  a majority  of  those  who  have  passed  the  meri- 
dian of  life,  will  lay  aside  all  prejudice,  and  at 
once  come  heartily  and  freshly  into  this  work.  Men 
sometimes  do  this,  I know.  Some  noble  men  there 


ADDRESS  ON  SLAVERY. 


43 


are,  Avho  are  always  young,  with  the  freshness  of 
heart  and  the  tenderness  of  conscience  of  opening 
life  unimpaired.  Would  to  God  there  were  more 
such  ! But  this  is  not  the  general  result  of  a long 
life  and  a fierce  struggle  in  our  selfish  world.  The 
heart  grows  old  and  tough  too  often,  with  the  in- 
crease of  years ; and  the  prejifdices  of  education,  be- 
ing long  cherished,  become  a habit  of  the  mind, 
from  which  few  can  break  away.  Fondest  welcome, 
reverence  and  love,  then,  be  given  to  the  aged  and 
the  wise,  who  are  now  faithfully  employed  in  this 
great  work  of  universal  Christian  Humanity.  So 
also  to  all  in  the  maturity  or  advance  of  life,  who 
will  come  boldly  up  to  the  help  of  the  Lord’s  plead- 
ing children,  against  the  terrible  slave-power. 

But  whoever  else  may  engage  in  this  sublime  en- 
terprise, it  is,  after  all,  most  emphatically  committed 
to  the  young,  the  affectionate,  the  generous,  the  ar- 
dent, to  those  yet  uncontaminated  by  close  and  long 
contact  with  a heartless  world.  Behold,  then,  my 
dear  young  friends,  the  glorious  mission  to  which 
God  calls  you.  Listen  to  the  heavenly  summons. 
Gird  on  the  Divine  panoply  of  truth,  faith  and  love, 
and  enter  upon  the  arduous  work  of  a sanctified  and 
universal  Humanity.  Swell  the  ranks  of  liberty  by 
your  presence.  Let  your  glad  tones  ring  out  in  the 
front  ranks  of  God’s  fast  marshalling  host.  Help  on 
the  regeneration  of  the  world.  Lay  not  up  your 
treasures  upon  the  earth.  Secure  enduring  treasures 
of  love  in  the  hearts  of  your  brother  men,  for  then 
shall  you  have  priceless  and  eternal  treasure  in  the 
Kingdom  of  God.  Be  not  controlled  by  a selfish, 
paltry  ambition.  Be  good,  and  then  you  will  be  great. 
Love,  and  strive  to  promote  the  highest  well-being  of 
man,  and  then  you  shall  be  loved  in  return,  and  you 
shall  be  truly  and  for  ever  blessed.  Three  millions 
of  slaves,  your  own  brothers,  your  own  sisters,  though 
branded,  chained  and  despised,  turn  upon  yon  their 


44  ADDRESS  ON  S 

3 0112  0724011 

weeping  eyes,  stretch  out  to  you  their  manacled  hand 
and  lift  up  unto  tjou  their  pleading  voices  for  delivei 
ance  from  their  insupportable  sorrows.  Oh  ! turn  y 
upon  those  beseeching  eyes  the  bright  beams  of  brotl 
erly  love, — grasp  those  manacled  hands  with  the  stron 
earnestness  of  deep  sympathy,  of  fond  affection, - 
respond  to  those  entreating  tones  of  pleading  sorrov 
in  the  divine  words  of  our  Prince  and  deliverer,  “ L 
I come  to  do  thy  will,  O God,  to  set  these  wailin 
captives  free,  to  bind  up  these  broken  hearts,  to  opej 
the  iron  door  of  bondage  for  the  deliverance  of  thes 
dear  imprisoned  brethren,  to  pour  the  light  of  lovj 
and  truth  into  these  immortal  minds,  shrouded  i| 
thick  darkness  through  the  rapacity  and  injustice  d 
their  brother  man,  to  sound  aloud  through  the  world 
again  and  again,  the  glad  heavenly  song,  j 

“ Glory  to  God  in  tlie  Heavens  ; _ i 

Peace  and  good  will  to  man  on  earth  ” ! 

Come  ! for  all  things  are  now  ready.  Let  God’i 
Spirit  in  this  propitious  hour,  witness,  approve  anj 
seal  your  inward  purpose,  your  holy  vow,  from  th 
moment  to  consecrate  your  opening  energies,  yo 
matured  powers,  your  last  mental  aspirations  on  th 
shores  of  time,  to  the  heavenly  enterprise  of  givin 
to  all  mankind  a peaceful,  happy  place  in  the  Chn 
tian  Brotherhood  of  Fraternity,  Liberty,  and  Equa 
ity.  Enter  yourself  into  the  family  of  Jesus.  Lea 
others  with  you  into  the  blessed  circle  of  love,  an 
peace,  and  joy  in  God.  Oh ! that  the  young  me 
and  young  women  of  our  day,  would  awake  to  a tru 
sense  of  their  responsibilities,  and,  girded  with  an  i 
movable  faith  in  God  and  a divine  love  for  nm 
would  enter  upon  a life  of  true  holy  beneficence.  F 
then,  slavery  and  all  wrong-doing  would  soon  be  bar 
ished  from  the  earth,  and  our  world  would  become 
paradise  of  love,  piety  and  happiness.  ■* 


